Well, it is put up or shut up time as I am running that campaign which I was navel gazing over the past couple of weeks. In the last couple of days I managed to throw up a quick wiki for myself and the players, generate a half-decent map of the region, generate a basic flow chart and some encounters. I’m home waiting for the satellite guy to come by and re-affix our dish so I’ve got a little more time to polish things.
Now, I just need to keep them entertained for three hours a week and dancing is out because no one wants to see me dance.
For the first time, in who knows how long, Management and I actually went somewhere and stayed up past our designated bedtime of 9 PM. You could file that under “sad” but really it belongs under “pathetic” because here it is Monday and I’m still in the recovery process for events that transpired some 36 hours ago. Sub-categorize it by “WTF” as I didn’t drink either. It might be time for me to make an appointment with a gerontologist.
Saturday night we headed over to the Mohegan Sun to meet some friends. It was my second time ever in a casino, and my second time at this one–the first being for a Microsoft convention when they were launching the whole “Less is More” thing, not something you want to be wearing on a t-shirt especially as a geek. No gambling for us as even the siren call of the nickel and penny slots could not beguile us to play a dollar. Instead we marveled at the architecture, Management and her friend are design students so they spent a better part of the evening moving from mosaic to waterfall to vast log structures discussing texture, meaning, and application. It is fascinating the amount of care and effort that went into the design and construction of the facility to reflect the history and culture of the Mohegan Tribe, just to see it is worth a visit alone.
Mohegan Sun is very much like a mall for adults, whereas a traditional mall is for teenagers, visitors do the slow circulation through the slots, gaming tables, free drinks, restaurants, and even stores–I like to refer to this process as The Rotisserie as people keep rotating until they are done. As evenings go it was a quiet one with a leisurely dinner and drinks afterwards at another restaurant with time flowing by unnoticed until we realized that the night was deepening and the clock approached one in the morning; always a mark of a good time.
It is very likely that we’ll go back, the restaurant selection is good and there is always a free show to be had but the biggest attraction for me is the people. Never have I seen so many Larks, wheelchairs, and oxygen tanks in one place with people cashing paychecks and social security checks all hoping to make it big while their children are piled carelessly in the corner just outside the gaming area. People watching here will leave you with a touch of melancholy but that can be quickly erased as you watch those that have had one to many whiskey and sodas stumble into a fountain or just decide to lay down in the middle of the floor to “just rest their eyes for a bit”.
Today I almost put on my orange colored polo shirt but something made me think better of it. When I got to work I told Peggy, a sweet Irish septuagenarian, about my almost faux-paux to which she replied, “I love you like my own but I’d have to pop you one for that!”
There is nothing quite as disturbing as being in the restroom listening to someone take a call on their cellphone and put it on speaker all the while negotiating a particularly difficult bowel movement.
This is a quick recipe where the components can either be leftovers or made ahead. It is essentially a variation on the fishcakes that are popular here in New England but rather than using bread filling and codfish I am using lentils, pre-cooked corn meal, and tilapia with seasoning that has a distinctly Caribbean and Mexican twist.
Ingredients
- 2/3 Cup of Masarepa (cooked corn meal which can often be found amongst the Goya products)
- 2.3 Cup of water
- 1 1/3 Cups of cooked lentils
- (2) Tilapia fillets
- Pinch of salt
- Fresh ground pepper to taste
- (1) Lemon
- (1) Lime
- (2) Tablespoons of dried cilantro
- (5) Cloves of garlic
- (1) Small onion
- 1/2 Cup of frozen corn
- (2) Tablespoons of olive oil
- (1) Bay Leaf
- (1) Dried chili pepper
Preparation
This recipe works best if the lentils are prepared ahead of time with a basic recipe (16 oz of beans to 8 cups of water, 1 small onion halved, 6 cloves of garlic crushed, 1 bay leaf, bring to a boil them turn down to simmer for 15 to 20 minutes) and has had time to sit refrigerated overnight.
The fish marinade should be assembled some six hours before cooking and it involves:
- Rinse and pat dry the tilapia fillets taking care not to break the meat and place in a Ziploc bag or an airtight container.
- Coat the fish with the cilantro, bay leaf, pepper, chili pepper, and salt.
- Half and juice both the lime and the lemon then quarter the remains and add to the juice.
- Slice onion, crush the garlic, and add to citrus juice along with the olive oil.
- Stir then pour over the fish, seal and refrigerate for at least six hours.
To make the cakes:
- Bake the fish in a foil packet at 450° Fahrenheit for 20 minutes. When it is cooked remove it from the oven, let it cool then shred it, keeping any onion and garlic that you like and set it aside.
- Add the masarepa and water stirring briskly until they are fully incorporated and no dry lumps remain.
- Add the lentils and fork the mixture until the lentils and masarepa are well mixed.
- Add the shredded fish, mix well then stir in the corn and set aside.
- Heat a frying pan of approximately 1 1/2 inches of vegetable oil–I didn’t calculate temperature here but you want it hot enough to shimmer but not smoke, also I use cast iron for this type of cooking as it, in my opinion, distributes the heat better than steel or aluminum.
- Form the mixture into palm sized patties and add to the oil cooking only three at a time.
- Fry until golden brown then remove and set aside on paper towels to soak up any excess oil.
We managed to get about nine fishcakes from this recipe which was enough for dinner and a lunch the next day. If you are vegetarian you could substitute the fish with plantains, cooking them until they are soft but not mushy. We served the cakes with a side of pan roasted asparagus cooked in a little butter and lemon juice. Enjoy!
